Forest Bite!!!

[jriegel]

Anyone else notice the bite slowing this week, we caught 5 eyes on sunday and have been skunked the last 2 nights, maybe its just me

[WalleyeBIZ]

The bite has slowed a lot!! Give it a few days!!

[servocam]

Was on Flake today. Saw a Walleye and Pike on the UWC while catching Crapppie. Come 4pm, tight-lipped they went.

BTW - tons of TRASH on Forest Lake! PICK UP AFTER YOURSELVES! My kids and I picked up from 3 different spots: (2) 1lb propane tanks, (2) Poweraide bottles, 7 beer cans, 1 chair and pizza box. Forest Lake, 1st Lake landing has Garbage cans.

PICK UP AFTER YOURSELVES putzes!

[tunrevir]

Thanks servo for being a good steward of the lake and taking with you what other folks left behind! I appreciate what you did today and your teaching your kids well!

Tunrevir~

[Dozer]

Dumb question but is the "1st Lake" the west end but town?

[servocam]

correct

[drscholl14]

Servo, I had the opposite. 4 pm the bite got hot. got 2 eater eyes, a 26 inch pike on a tip up and my buddy's 10 year old son caught a 13.5 in. crappie along with countless 6-8 inchers. After only catching bait sized perch all afternoon it saved our day.

[tunrevir]

Good work there drscholl! It has been consistent 1-4 eyes a night out there with a mixed bag of fish throughout the day. I have caught eyes as early as 2pm this year but not many after 8 but I typically don't stay late very often. I had reports of some hawgs caught between 10 and 2 am out there this year with a 28" being the largest I have seen.

Tunrevir~

[servocam]

I went out yesterday afternoon w/ 3 of the kids, same spot as lst. We didn't see any pike this time, but lots of Crappie and Perch (6" range).....but were not too hungry and with a 2.5yo and 4.5yo with, once cannot expect to fish too much but to tend to them. My 4yo is a natural fisher! She loved it this summer and enjoying ice fishing even ore.

My 15yo DD wanted to bring the snowmobiles so she could go drive off to see some friends...so if you saw two black/whtie snowmobiles cruising from 1st to 2nd and back, that was me.

[FishingFL]

Had a decent Sunday afternoon/evening. Had a 12" bl crappie and a 15" white crappie. Other much smaller crappies sprinkled in also with the normal tiny perch lighting up the screen all day.

House is set up in 20fow on 2nd lake.

[bavincent]

Been fishing Forest this year rather than White Bear. White Bear was a great crappie lake for a few years with a good chance for a wall mounter. No more. I am catching an occasional 12-14 incher in forest along with all the smaller fish. I would really encourage people to release those larger fish unless you catch one to mount. The little ones taste the same as the big ones. Thanks.

[Mnpike1]

I have not had much luck out on lake 3 this year. Can anyone give me some general tips of what depth I should be targeting? At this point I will settle for anything that bites

[tunrevir]

mnPike, welcome to the boards! I would say you should be able to find crappies along the edges of any of the deeper holes on up into about 15 fow. The deep fish will bite all day while the shallow fish will move in and bite towards dark. There has been some walleye activity in the 14-18 foot areas and around some of the humps in the middle of the lake. I haven't heard any deep reports for walleyes off lake three this year but did find some willing biters earlier in the year in the 19-22' range. Up into the 12-16' range if you can find standing green weeds you should find active gills and crappies at dark. If you can stay mobile, find deep water and work the break near where it goes from shallower water to deeper water and punch holes until you find fish. The deeper fish should be suspended and easy to locate with electronics.

Tunrevir~

Tunrevir~

[RiverDewey]

Thanks tunrevir and others for all the tips and info here. Makes it one of the best threads on the board IMHO. I never like to post negative reports, but for what it's worth, in 4 or 5 outings on lake 3 we've only gotten as many walleye and none were over 12". All are still swimming. We were fishing in anywhere from 10 to 18 FOW and from 3pm to roughly 8 pm. Looks like I might have to try lake 2 or 1. I am a newbie to Flake and still learning its secrets! Fun lake though. Thanks to everyone for your help.

[tunrevir]

A negative report can help steer folks in the right direction or possibly help them to make a choice between different lakes they are interested in fishing. One thing I enjoy doing this time of year is what I call prospecting. I like to work areas I think have fish holding potential that I have not fished before. Using the information I have gathered from successful outings I like to poke around into areas with less traffic and pressure that hold similar characteristics to where I have had success in the past. Many nights I will blank for my efforts but every once in awhile I will find a school of active fish that have seen little to no pressure all winter and they typically will be very aggressive fish. Now by blanked I mean I didn't catch any walleyes, often there are pike, crappies and even gills and or some decent perch to be had in these areas and I will file that info away for later outings. Prospecting an area may take 3-4 outings before I contact the fish I am after by making short moves of 30-100 yards along the structure I am working. Sometimes these little moves will help put you on the spot on the spot. If I suspect an area holds fish and that they were negative the first attempt I may go back and fish the area again a second time. If in two outings I am not contacting eyes then it is time to make a bigger move to the next piece of structure that I want to prospect. Sometimes there is gold in them there holes and that is a truly rewarding experience when you find a spot while prospecting!

Tunrevir~

[rascal23]

tunrevir,

I enjoy reading your posts. You provide alot of useful information, so thanks for that. I havn't fished forest this year - spending alot of time "prospecting" chisago for bluegills. Sounds like you and I opperate the same way for different species. Very rewarding. I have tried for walleye on Chisago afew outings, with spoons, without success. I'm having a hard time figuring out if I'm using the wrong spoon, the wrong way or if I'm in a bad spot. Obviously if you're in a proven spot, it makes the first two choices easier.If you're in a brand new area, how do you decide between moving or changing lures? If you're a spoon guy, what's your confidence lures and how you work them? I'm not much of a bobber and minnow guy-too antsy, gotta be jigging and moving. Thanks for any info.

rascal

[tunrevir]

Rascal, you will always have the go to lures that you feel most confident in that will be the first and probably most used lure in your arsenal. There are ways to up the ante when specifically targeting walleyes. When I am working a new area and specifically looking to contact eyes I will always work the primary spot with a spoon while having a fathead/shiner on a bobber rod 4' away. What I find is that when fish are neutral or negative the jigging will draw them in for a look and I may see them approach on sonar but then drop away from the jig only to see the bobber rod get whacked a few seconds or minutes later. Your jigging presentations will work best for aggressive fish and may even draw interest from neutral fish, while the old minnow is going to draw interest from neutral and negative fish and acts like a nice 1-2 punch.

On to the jigging side of things. When I am jigging I will have 2-3 rods rigged and ready with different colored spoons and types of spoons and have had success when seeing a fish come in on sonar and snub the first offering by quickly reeling up and dropping down another colored spoon or a different type of jigging spoon altogether.

For instance, a 1/16th oz rattle spoon draws in a fish, they follow it up a foot or two and then drop back down off the sonar. Was it the cadence, the rattles or the way the spoon fell or color that caused the fish to give me the snub? I can quickly eliminate color by dropping a similar offering in another color and see if I draw the fish back in get a bite or if the process repeats itself. If it repeats itself I can assume that the color may be throwing the fish off or the action and sound of the spoon in which case, I will switch to a silent presentation with a slower rate of fall like a small forage minnow spoon or maybe something with a slow fall and a little more flash like a tingler spoon. The quick switch in color or from rattles to silent and a slower fall rate can often trigger reluctant fish to bite.

Now keep in mind, the whole time you are working the switcheroo from one color and style of bait you have this minnow swimming just feet away it often becomes to much for the fish to resist and they whack the bobber rod. I have had countless times when drawing the fish in with the spoon and trying to work the switcheroo when the bobber rod gets whacked between the transition from one spoon to the other. In this case, the jigging spoon worked its magic by drawing a fish in and you have success in that the fish fell for a subtle presentation of a minnow. Other times the switch of presentation choices and color is enough to seal the deal and the fish comes in and hits the different color or comes back in and hits the spoon with the slower more subtle fall rate.

Some take aways to think about. When working a rattle spoon it is a more aggressive presentation, the jigging cadence is a continual pounding to get the bait dancing on the treble hook and optimize the sound from the rattles with occasional lifts of three to four inches while continually using a pounding rhythm back down to the original starting point 8-12 inches above the bottom. I keep this bait moving continually and will add occasional large lifts of 12-18 inches letting the lure settle back to my original starting point and sitting without movement for 5-10 seconds and then start the steady pounding 3-4 inch lift and pound for a couple of minutes. The fish will tell you if they want an active presentation if they come in while your using the pounding cadence or if they want a less aggressive presentation if the rocket up and hit the spoon after a lift fall and hold. When working fish that are coming in on a non moving bait I will often switch to the more subtle spoon with a slower fall rate and work a similar cadence but with more subtle wiggles rather then pounding the bait up and down.

On the Chisago chain, I seem to have more success with fatheads on the bobber rod then shiners and on Forest I like shiners over the fatheads. Fatheads produce well on Forest but perch are less apt to mess with a 3" shiner then a fathead. One presentation that many of us neglect to use in the winter is a simple jig and crappie minnow lip hooked and jigged using a more traditional lift fall, lift hold, lift fall more standard jigging presentation. I like to work 1/16th oz crappie sized feathered jigs with this technique and will at times especially on a mucky bottom let the jig plummet to the bottom and sit there a few seconds before starting the lift fall vertical jigging cadence again. This can be a deadly technique for neutral and negative bottom hugging fish when more traditional spoons fail. Smaller profile, slower drop rate and oftentimes when sitting right on the bottom those negative fish will come over and pounce on an easy meal. The added bonus is that this technique will also take larger panfish if they are in the area.

Bottom line, up your odds by putting the live bait rod next to your jigging presentation and be willing to switch jigging cadences and spoon styles in an attempt to trigger reluctant biters and you should see an uptick in your catch rates. Experiment with different colors and styles of spoons and try and decipher the cues the fish are giving you as to what cadence you use when jigging. We all become creatures of habit with regards to high confidence lures but this is even more true when we settle into the same jigging cadences over and over again regardless of the bait we are using. Hope this helps! Tightlines!

Tunrevir~

[RiverDewey]

Awesome tips and reminders tunrevir. Thanks from all of us that frequent this thread.

No matter what lake we are on, we should all be able to use these tips and the others on this thread to better our fishing skills.

[rascal23]

tunrevir,

x2!!!

As much as I like the hunt for big bluegills, I really want to expand my angling horizons. It's why I fish. Spring,summer,fall,winter. Different seasons, different species, lakes,rivers, anything with fins. So I'll be spending some more time chasing the eye. I like your idea of the jig and minnow. Works great open water- why not through the ice. Could you have your bobber rig pull double-duty by having that same jig n minnow under a bobber and slide the knot up a bit to bounce it off the bottom once in awhile ? Or do you stick with a hook and splitshot under the bob. I guess I'll have to drill a few less holes and settle down a bit. Will the walleyes be hanging a little deeper as the season progresses?

I may get over to Forest yet this winter. If I do, I'll bring a garbage bag along. Sounds like you guys could use a little help on slob patrol. A good friend taught me that picking up trash on trout streams brings good karma. (It does!) Hopefully karma works both ways!!

Thanks again!

rascal

[WalleyeBIZ]

Great advice, as we have moved 3 times in the last 8 days!! Landed on a pile of slab crappies the last few days!!!

[Jughead]

Hey Tun,

Just wanted to thank you for all of the great advice you freely give. I have fished forest for awhile and never had much luck.

I took some advice, found some depths and finally caught my first two walleye last week! Just a thanks as I rarely catch metro eyes. Keep up the good work.

Jug

[tunrevir]

That is awesome jughead! Glad to help out

Tunrevir~

[WalleyeBIZ]

Well it would appear that Tun has revealed most of my secrets!!lol! A lot of people have trouble out there with the eyes, but after a few years of trying some pretty drastic lure changes, and presentations we've managed to be fairly consistant with the eyes and big craps!!! Take his advise and mix in some of your own tricks and u will be rewarded!!!! And I caught a 6" perch on a 3.5" shiner tonight!!!lmao

[doomanmxz99]

Was thinking about pulling out the perm this weekend and was wondering how the ice was??? Also noticed the landing on 1st lake was messed up. Willow point landing good??? Looking to go to 1st lake to take the kids out during the day and try some walleyes at night. Eyes still coming in to the shallows at night 12-15fow??? Any info would be great Thanks

[tunrevir]

doomanmxz99, The launch on first has been fixed but you may want to try second or third lake this weekend as there are snowmobile races running down the shore from just north of the landing to the apartments on north shore and it will be crowded if they are racing. Bite is still consistent out there with eyes active 1-2 hours before dark and after dark. Pike are active in the 7-12 foot depths and crappies can be had in the deeper water or along the 15' contours at dark.

Tunrevir~

[drscholl14]

Hey Tun, I haven't been to Forest in two weeks. Is it still safe to drive out there? Found out there was only 12-14 inches on Big Marine after driving halfway across the last last weekend. A little leery on driving now.

[tunrevir]

I was out there Weds night and there was roughly 14-16 inches with very little snow cover left.

Tunrevir~

[FishingFL]

I haven't seen more than 16 inches in any spot on Forest this year and there's been wheelhouses and trucks out for quite a while now. A few cold nights the last couple of days doesn't hurt either.

[doomanmxz99]

tunrevir thanks for the info but are u sure that there are races this weekend??? All I can find is for Feb 14 sweetheart run on forest? I normally dont ice fish on 2nd or 3rd but I do summer fish so any hints where to start??? Looking to bring my two boys out during the day and then trying for some eyes crappies at night?

[tunrevir]

Dooman, I am not sure about the races being this weekend but typically when they plow the track they have the races the following weekend. You may well be correct on the date, maybe they cleared it so they can run for practice before the races. pm sent.

Tunrevir~